This no-bake jello fruit cake dessert recipe combines variety of fresh fruits with apple juice. For best results, read through the entire recipe before beginning.
Prep: Weigh and wash all fresh fruits. Lightly pan spray bundt pan and wipe off all over the interior of the pan with a paper towel to cover all areas.
Make the jello: Pour 1 cup of apple juice into a medium bowl and sprinkle 4 pockets of gelatin, set aside. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring to a boil remaining 3 cups of apple juice, 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice. Pour boiled juice into the bowl with gelatin and whisk well to dissolve the gelatin. Set aside to cool.
Assemble fruits: Peel and cube mangoes into 1/2 inch pieces, cut all grapes into halves and cube strawberries into 1/2 inch pieces. Assemble the prepared fruits into the bundt pan in this order: raspberries, mangoes, strawberries, green grapes and red grapes.
Slowly pour cooled apple juice gelatin over the fruits, covering to the top (including red grapes). Refrigerate for 3-4 hours in order for gelatin to set.
4 hours later: Pour hot water into a large pot or bowl and place the bundt pan with jello into it for 10 seconds (because of the thickness of our pan, it takes us about 1 minute and 20 seconds). As soon as you see a little bit of melting on the sides, take it out. Cover bundt pan with a serving plate and quickly turn it over. (Highly suggest turning over the sink in case the jello melted more than needed). Decorate with additional fruits around the cake, if preferred. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
Make-Ahead Instructions: You can fully assemble, set and refrigerate the cake overnight and invert onto serving platter the next day. You can also transfer it onto serving platter the day before, as long as you serve it next day for sure.
Best Fruits to Use: Using the same ingredients we have listed above, works the best because the combination of fruit colors make the cake not only satisfying, but also beautiful. You can also use blueberries, black currants, honeydew chunks and similar fruits. I would suggest testing new fruits in small portions beforehand before you incorporate them into the cake. Make sure to avoid fresh kiwi and pineapple because these two will prevent the jello from setting. Banana does not work well either, unless you plan to eat the cake in one day. It becomes brown and slimy overnight.
Fill Mold Completely: We have tested with fruits amount in this recipe to fully fill the type of mold we are using. Depending on the size of your mold, you may need more or less than the recipe calls for, especially if you change the fruits. Whatever fruits you use, you want to make sure to fill the pan completely, so that the fruits don’t sink to the bottom of the mold and that you don’t have fruit-free spaces in your jello cake.
Adding Juice:Let the jello mixture cool completely before you pour it over the fruits, otherwise it will cook the fruits and make the fruit pieces soggy. Apple juice works great because it’s light in color and you can clearly see the fruit layers in the cake. You can use any packaged Jell-O to your preference and omit the unflavored gelatin from the ingredients. Make sure to have at least 4 cups of liquid to fully cover the fruits.
Removing Cake from Mold: Check jello with a knife before you flip it to make sure it’s fully set. Some readers mentioned that flipping the pan with jello upside down and heating the outside of the pan with a hair dryer for 30 seconds also works.